This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7371 of PCT International Application No. PCT/JP01/02268 which has an International filing date of Mar. 21, 2001, which designated the United States of America and was not published in English.
The present invention relates to a lower leg massager and a chair type massaging apparatus using the same.
Hitherto, one of chair type massaging apparatuses that can massage not only the back or the hip of the human body, but also lower legs (specifically, the portion from below knee region to the vicinity of the ankle) thereof is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No.3012780. This massaging apparatus, comprises a seat portion for supporting the hip of the human body from below, a seatback portion provided at the rear end of the seat portion and including a massaging mechanism therein, and a footrest connected to the front end of the seat portion and having capability of massaging lower legs.
Such a footrest comprises a pair of right and left therapeutic recesses for accommodating lower legs between both end walls and center wall, and airbags on the inner surfaces of both side walls and on both side surfaces of the center wall. Therefore, in the footrest of the related art, both lower legs fitted in the respective therapeutic recesses can be massaged simultaneously by inflating and deflating the respective air bags by an air supplying/discharging apparatus.
In the case of an airbag used in the footrest described above, since the swelling extent thereof is the largest at the center and gradually decreases toward both ends, a sufficient pressing force is applied only on a small region along the length of the lower leg, and thus in order to obtain a desired massaging effect, the user disadvantageously have to move his/her lower legs along the therapeutic recesses.
Therefore, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. HEI 11-347082, a footrest having a plurality of airbags adjacently aligned along the length of each therapeutic recess to supply and discharge air to/from the plurality of airbags simultaneously or sequentially so that the lower leg can be effectively massaged over a large region along the length thereof has already been proposed.
However, such a massaging apparatus has a disadvantage in that the number of components increases and thus the manufacturing cost increases as well since a plurality of airbags (massaging members) have to be aligned along the length of the recess on both sides of one therapeutic recess.
Moreover, in addition to the fact that the airbag type massaging apparatus has a disadvantage in that it is large and costly since an air supplying/discharging apparatus comprising a compressor, an air piping, an electromagnetic valve, and a controlling means for the valve is required, there is another disadvantage in that programming of the controlling means for the air supplying/discharging apparatus increases in complexity in order to inflate and deflate the plurality of airbags simultaneously and sequentially, thereby further increasing the manufacturing cost.
On the other hand, a conceivable measure to solve the fundamental disadvantage existing in such an airbag type massaging apparatus is to employ a mechanism that both side wall that constitute the therapeutic recess themselves moves toward and away from the lower leg.
However, when allowing the both side walls constituting the therapeutic recess to move simply in parallel toward and away from the lower leg, the both side walls press only the thicker portion of the lower leg (for example, the calf), and the thinner portion (for example, the portion near the ankle) cannot be preferably massaged. In addition, the simple parallel movement of the both side walls cannot perform complex massaging operation such as rubbing up and rubbing down for the lower leg.
With such circumstances in view, it is an object of the present invention to provide a massager being capable of massaging the lower leg over a wide range and in a preferred manner at low cost by constructing the apparatus in such a manner that the lower leg can be pressed over a wide range without arranging a plurality of massaging member along the length thereof.
In order to achieve the object described above, the present invention takes a following technical step.
That is, the lower leg massager according to the present invention comprises: massaging means comprising a pair of right and left massaging members arranged in an opposed manner at a space as wide as a lower leg can be fitted therebetween and formed of board elongated in the direction along the length of the lower leg; and driving means for moving the pair of right and left massaging members toward and away from each other so that the longitudinal directions thereof are inclined in the opposite directions with respect to each other and changing the extent of longitudinal inclination of the massaging members with respect to the longitudinal direction of the lower leg when moving the massaging members toward and away from each other.
In this case, when the driving means is operated with a lower leg fitted between the pair of right and left massaging members, the respective massaging members move toward and away from each other so that the longitudinal directions thereof are inclined in the opposite directions with respect to each other for massaging the lower leg fitted therebetween.
In the present invention, since the massaging member is constructed not only to simply moves in parallel but also to change the extent of longitudinal inclination thereof with respect to the direction longitudinally of the lower leg when they moves toward and away from each other, the massaging members adequately presses each longitudinal portions of the lower leg of different thickness. Therefore, the lower leg can adequately be massaged over a wide range along the length thereof even without arranging a plurality of massaging members along the direction longitudinally of the length of the lower leg.
When each massaging member moves toward and away from each other, the extent of longitudinal inclination of each massaging member with respect to the direction longitudinally of the lower leg changes, and thus complex massaging operation such as rubbing up and rubbing down can be performed for the lower leg.
In the invention described above, by constructing a pair of right and left massaging members to be driven by the driving means in such a manner that when one of the longitudinally opposing ends of the pair of right and left massaging members moves toward each other, the other longitudinally opposing ends thereof move away from each other, and when one of the longitudinally opposing ends of the pair of right and left massaging members move away from each other, the other longitudinally opposing ends of the pair of right and left massaging members move toward each other, the different therapeutic portions of the lower leg longitudinally away from each other can be massaged alternately at different timings, and thus the massaging effect for the lower leg can be improved.
In addition, by constructing the pair of right and left massaging members in such a manner that the extent of widthwise inclination of the same massaging member with respect to the thickness of the lower leg is changed when they moves toward and away from each other by the driving means, the complex massaging operation such as rubbing up and rubbing down with respect to the lower leg can also be performed in the direction of thickness thereof.
The driving means that can be employed for performing the above-described operation may comprise, more specifically, a revolving shaft passing through each massaging member in the direction of thickness so as to be capable of relative rotation with respect to the pair of right and left massaging members, a pair of right and left cam members fixed at axially intermediate positions of the revolving shaft and having cam surfaces inclined with respect to the revolving shaft and abutted against each massaging member, and a guide member for allowing the pair of right and left massaging members to move along the revolving shaft but restricting the same from being rotated therewith.
In this invention, by arranging two massaging means in such a manner that the therapeutic recesses for the lower legs constructed by the massaging members of the same means are arranged side by side in the same direction on the left side and the right side away from each other, two massaging means can massage a pair of lower legs at the same time. In this case, by providing the driving motor for rotating the revolving shaft between these two massaging means, the lateral dimension of this massaging apparatus can be reduced.
In the present invention, forming the pair of right and left massaging members of leaf springs that are resiliently deformable in the direction of thickness prevents the massaging members from pressing the lower leg too strong and making the user feel pain.
In the present invention, by constructing the pair of right and left massaging members in such a manner that the portion corresponding to the lower portion of the lower leg to be fitted therebetween is moved closer to the lower leg in comparison with the: portion corresponding to the upper portion of the lower leg, a pressing force applied to the lower portion of the lower leg and a pressing force applied to the upper portion of the lower leg are equalized and thus the massaging effect for each portion of the lower leg can be equalized.
The massaging apparatus for the lower leg described thus far can be used as a single unit massager that is placed on the floor or on the bed, and as a footrest for the chair type massaging apparatus.
In other words, the chair type massaging apparatus of the present invention comprises a seat portion for supporting the hip of a human body from below, a seat back portion connected to the rear end of the seat, and a footrest mounted in front of the seat portion and having a massager for the lower leg. The footrest may be connected to the front end of the seat so as to be detachable or integrally, or may be arranged separately from the front end of the seat portion.